Thursday, August 8, 2013

If
you are in business then you know that customers make mistakes. They
get things wrong. They don’t read the information that you have provided
them. If they have read the information they mis-understand your
message. They don’t turn up when they are supposed to. They miss
bookings. This list could go on forever!

As
service providers we can either see these mistakes as a pain in the
neck and wish for the day when our customers will no longer make them.
Or we can see these mistakes as opportunities to innovate so that the
mistakes are either eliminated, reduced or mitigated.

Recently
I flew to the USA with my wife and five children. International travel
with five children can be a stressful experience. Anything that the
airlines can do to cut the stress is a blessing. Anything they do that
increases stress makes the travelling experience more challenging.

Despite
being an experienced traveller I forgot to arrange our visas for entry
to the USA. This error, my error, was surfaced while we were checking
in. “I’m sorry sir, but you can’t check in until your visas have been
approved. Here is a card with a website address for you to quickly
complete your application. Please move your bags to the side so that I
can check in the next customer. There is an internet cafe just down the
foyer past gate 60.”

I
made the mistake. The airline, in this case United Airlines was not to
blame for my mistake. It was my fault. That said, at that moment, how do
you think I felt about United Airlines? The error wasn’t theirs, but in that moment I felt that somehow they were responsible, even though they weren’t.

I
ran through the airport to find the internet cafe. I then spent over
fifty minutes completing my online applications. Each application took
about eight minutes to complete. You can imagine my stress levels
rising. As each minute passed we were getting closer and closer to being
excluded from being able to board our flight. Twice through the
application process the computer I was using crashed, meaning that I had
to reboot it and I had to restart the application process again.
Everything around me became a blur. All I was focussed on was completing
the applications so that we could complete our check-in process.

Finally
all seven applications were complete. I ran back to the check-in
counter. We were the last people to be checked in. The staff were
wonderful as they helped us through this process as more forms needed to
be completed and we still needed to clear customs. As we were checking
in the staff told us that it had been one of those days where multiple people had not completed their visa applications.My
mistake as a customer had also made life for the staff more difficult
as they too were frustrated by their inability to check us in in a
timely manner.

When
we were finally on the plane and I had some time to catch my breath and
reflect on my mistake, it dawned on me that the staff had indicated
that there had been a pattern of customers making the same mistake that I
had made.

From
business perspective I find patterns interesting. They can often lead
to opportunities. We had waited in line for over an hour before being
checked in. A United Airlines staff member had been ‘walking’ the line
asking us if we required tags for our luggage. Many people found this
service useful. However, what if this staff member had also been asking customers if they had completed their visa applications?
If I had been made aware of my mistake earlier I could have completed
the online application process while my wife and children were waiting
in the check-in line.

United
Airlines also had access to a system that informed them about our visa
status. I know this because the staff member who checked us in accessed
this system to check our status. I wonder whether this information could
have been used to contact me three days before our flight. Imagine if I
had either received an email, a text message or even a phone call three
days before our flight informing me that I was yet to complete my visa
application. I could have been made aware of my error so that it didn’t
become an error. People missing flights isn’t good for anyone so
anything the airlines can do to reduce the chances that flights are
missed has to be good for both the airlines and the customers.

Flight
Centre was our travel agent and once again, in this self-help world
that we live in a travel agent is an expert in international travel, not
me. Imagine if Flight Centre had also had a system in place to help me
to help myself? After all, as experts in travel the very thing that they
would know that could negatively impact my travel plans is not having
appropriate visas. In fact my wife had spoken with our travel agent a
few days before our departure and this issue had not been raised with
her. An opportunity missed!

Once
again I want to make it clear that I am not blaming United Airlines nor
Flight Centre for my mistake. Rather, I am using this personal
experience to highlight that organisations need to be aware of the
common mistakes that their customers make and to do whatever they can to
help their customers reduce those errors. Whether we like it or not,
most customers will blame the organisation for mistakes that they (the
customer) has made. Customer driven mistakes are the service
provider’s problem. Looking at the patterns of mistakes and then seeing
these patterns as opportunities can definitely enhance an overall
customer experience.

What common customer errors happen in your world and what are you doing to cut them?

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